Feature Channels: All Journal News

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Birds create songs by moving muscles in their vocal organs to vibrate air passing through their tissues, and new research shows that these muscles act in concert to create sound. Scientists describe how zebra finches produce songs in this week’s Chaos: Using electromyographic signals, they tracked the activity of one muscle involved in creating sound, the syringealis ventralis. They then used the data from this muscle to create a synthetic zebra finch song.

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The word sabbatical could conjure up all sorts of envy in non-academics who may hear the term and think only of “paid time off.” However, this “time away” is anything but “time off.”

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Earthbound detectives rely on fingerprints to solve their cases; now astronomers can do the same, using “light-fingerprints” instead of skin grooves to uncover the mysteries of exoplanets.

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Researchers at the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy in the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center discovered inhibiting a previously known protein could reduce tumor burdens and enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy treatments.

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Women’s brains are much more vulnerable than men’s to injury from repeated soccer heading, according to a new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, part of Montefiore. The study found that regions of damaged brain tissue were five times more extensive in female soccer players than in males, suggesting that sex-specific guidelines may be warranted for preventing soccer-related head injuries. The results were published online today in Radiology.

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When recreational scallopers flocked to Florida's Crystal River region, native sea turtles turned tail. Researchers say that sudden behavioral disruption could mean trouble the turtles overall health.

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Medical teams at the Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC) are leading the way in utilization of hepatitis C-exposed donors for heart transplantation.

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Just two weeks without much activity can have a dramatic impact on health from which it is difficult to recover, according to researchers who studied overweight older adults at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

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Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say their small survey of nearly 100 health care practitioners who are members of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America revealed that only half routinely ask their patients directly about their sexual orientation. In addition, the survey found, of those who do not ask, more than 40 percent say that sexual orientation is irrelevant to patients’ care, a position contrary to longstanding clinical evidence.

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A University of Virginia Health System program that provides follow-up care for heart failure patients after they leave the hospital significantly improves survival and other outcomes while saving money, a new study finds.

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Glaucoma Research Foundation, a national non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for glaucoma, today announced a team of neuroscience researchers, led by Adriana Di Polo, PhD, at University of Montreal, have made a major breakthrough in the treatment of glaucoma. The research, which was made possible by a Glaucoma Research Foundation Shaffer Grant, could also be applicable to other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease.

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A new study finds that long-term heat therapy may increase mitochondrial function in the muscles. The discovery could lead to new treatments for people with chronic illness or disease. The study—the first of its kind in humans—is published ahead of print in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

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Future outbreaks of foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease can be combatted quickly and efficiently from early on - when authorities have minimal information - thanks to a new real-time strategy, developed by researchers at the University of Warwick.

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Artist-in-residence Elizabeth Vander Kamp laughs with a patient during an Arts in Medicine visit.Many hospitalized patients, especially older adults, are at risk of developing delirium, a risk that is increased by the presence of cognitive, functional, visual or hearing impairment or depression. Performing arts programs that include storytelling and poetry may be beneficial in lowering that risk, suggests a study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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New research from Indiana University has identified "hotspots" in DNA where the risk for genetic mutations from errors during cellular replication is significantly elevated. The results are significant since DNA errors play a significant role in many types of cancer.

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Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and their colleagues are a step closer to developing a broadly effective antibody treatment against the three major Ebola viruses that cause lethal disease in humans.

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A team led by scientists from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has sequenced and annotated the first complete mitochondrial genome of Anopheles funestus, one of the main vectors of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Researchers at Columbia found that a gene associated with an autoimmune form of hair loss may be activated to boost cancer immunotherapy.

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All living things use the genetic code to “translate” DNA-based genetic information into proteins. Precisely how the process of translation arose in the earliest stages of life on Earth has long been mysterious, but two theoretical biologists have now made a significant advance in this field.

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A University at Buffalo psychologist has proposed in a newly published paper that humpback whales may use song for long-range sonar. It’s the singing whale, not the listening whale who is doing most of the analysis, according to Eduardo Mercado III. If he’s right, Mercado says his model should change the direction of how we study whales.

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Researchers at UC Santa Cruz are addressing the issues of groundwater supply and water quality with an ongoing "managed aquifer recharge" program in the Pajaro Valley, where they have been implementing and studying groundwater recharge projects and evaluating methods to improve water quality as it infiltrates into the ground.

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Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have demonstrated that magnetic nanoparticles can be used to ferry chemotherapy drugs into the spinal cord to treat hard-to-reach spinal tumors in an animal model. The unique delivery system represents a novel way to target chemotherapy drugs to spinal cancer cells, which are hard to reach because the drugs must cross the blood-brain barrier.

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A team of researchers led by cardiologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center has developed a new online tool to more accurately predict who among those ages 40-65 is at the highest risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years.

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Astronomers have made the first definitive detection of a radioactive molecule in interstellar space: a form, or isotopologue of aluminum monofluoride (26AlF). The new data – made with ALMA and the NOEMA radio telescopes – reveal that this radioactive isotopologue was ejected into space by the collision of two stars, a tremendously rare cosmic event that was witnessed on Earth as a “new star,” or nova, in the year 1670.

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The dominant existing technology—silicon—is more than 90 percent of the way to its theoretical efficiency limit. More efficient technologies will be more expensive. ASU study finds the acceptable intersection of costs vs. efficiency.

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Proponents of “terraforming” Mars to make it habitable propose releasing greenhouse gases from the planet’s surface such as carbon dioxide (CO2) to trap heat, warm the climate and ultimately increase the atmospheric pressure. The plausibility of achieving this with current technology is the focus of a new study sponsored by NASA just published in Nature Astronomy.

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Seriously, does anyone really like peas? More importantly, should parents pressure kids to eat them anyway, and does it hurt or help the child?

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A common class of drugs used to treat diabetes exerts a powerful check on macrophages by controlling the metabolic fuel they use to generate energy. Keeping macrophages from going overboard on the job may inhibit the onset of obesity and diabetes following tissue inflammation.

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Johns Hopkins researchers report they have demonstrated in mouse tissue grown in the lab that the cell layer surrounding breast milk ducts reaches out to grab stray cancer cells to keep them from spreading through the body. The findings reveal that this cell layer, called the myoepithelium, is not a stationary barrier to cancer invasion, as scientists previously thought, but an active defense against breast cancer metastasis.

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In a study published in the August issue of Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, investigators from the University of Alabama at Birmingham sought to answer this question. While it has been long recognized that heavy patients are at higher risk of complications after surgery, Dr. Wahl and his colleagues wanted to find out whether there was a difference whether a patient was merely pudgy or downright obese.

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Nearly a third of older adults have received a prescription for an opioid pain medicine in the past two years, but a new poll shows many didn’t get enough counseling about the risks that come with them, how to reduce use, when to switch to a non-opioid, or what to do with leftovers. Nearly three-quarters support limits on how many opioids a doctor can prescribe at once.

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What do patients really want? These are Important questions that doctors at the University of Vermont have tried to answer. In the August issue of Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, Dr. Wrenn and his colleagues surveyed 167 patients who had undergone a colorectal resection between 2009 and 2015.

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Columbia University researchers report the use of SRS microscopy, a technique widely used in biomedical studies, to explore the mechanism behind dendrite growth in lithium batteries, the first team of material scientists to directly observe ion transport in electrolytes. They were able to see not only why lithium dendrites form but also how to inhibit their growth. Visualizing ion movement could help improve the performance of electrochemical devices, from batteries to fuel cells to sensors.

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In a series of experiments with mice, Johns Hopkins investigators have used an experimental compound to successfully reverse hair loss, hair whitening and skin inflammation linked by previous studies to human diets heavy in fat and cholesterol.

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An increase in the Lone Star tick population since 2006, and the ability to recognize the ticks as the source of “alpha gal” allergy to red meat has meant significantly more cases of anaphylaxis being properly identified.

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The annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society is Aug. 3-6, with panel discussions and keynotes on understanding spiders, horses, dogs, birds, octopuses and many other organisms.

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Stimulant medications are an effective treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In the classroom, parents and teachers say that medications like methylphenidate (MPH) can reduce symptoms and improve behavior. Although stimulants have been in use for decades to treat ADHD in school-aged children, just how they work hasn’t been clear. But the results of a new study in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry is filling in critical gaps about the role of improved cognitive functions.

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Warshall, who graduated from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in 2014; Paul Dierkes, the softball teammate; and Joel Artz started Snowing in Space, a Charlottesville-based coffee business known for its nitro cold brew coffee, in 2016.

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New research from several universities in Germany, to be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, suggests that it may be easier than anticipated to find a compound that could be used as a food supplement to stop the spread of norovirus in children's hospitals.

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While blood and marrow transplants can save the life of a pediatric cancer patient, research out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that those patients may be at an increased risk of premature death even years or decades after the procedure as compared with the general population.

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A food scientist will further improve a near-infrared spectrometer calibration as a single platform for determining the quality of oats and develop new products that take oats beyond the breakfast aisle through a new NIFA grant.

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People struggling with motivation will benefit more from giving advice than receiving it, although most people predict the opposite to be true, according to new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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Pairing an online patient dashboard with “nudges” to doctors tripled statin prescribing rates in a clinical trial led by Penn Medicine researchers. The study used two nudges, active choice framing to prompt physicians to make a decision on prescriptions, and peer comparison feedback which provided physicians with information on their performance relative to other physicians.

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Increased awareness of breast tissue density masking cancer and thus decreasing the diagnostic sensitivity of mammography has brought about relevant state-level policies. This new study by Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute examines which characteristics of breast density state-level policies were associated with increased use of downstream breast ultrasound for enhancing earlier detection of breast cancer. The study is published in Medical Care.

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Millions of Medicare beneficiaries rely on eyeglasses and contact lenses. But the national health insurance program leaves many without adequate resources to properly maintain their sight.

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Eligible patients are increasingly facing longer waits for operations proven to help them safely lose weight that endangers their health. And waiting longer doesn’t improve safety, according to a new study by Michigan Medicine.

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A team of scientists from the University of Portsmouth have developed new scientific tests to better understand the effects of pollution on wildlife behaviour.

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Children, like adults, need quality sleep in order to function well. But, when a child sleepwalks, parents often worry about how this might impact their child’s development and behaviour. In a new study by the University of South Australia, researchers have explored the prevalence of sleepwalking in school children and its relationship with broader sleep and daytime difficulties.

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It’s often been said that the eyes are the window to the soul, revealing what we think and how we feel. Now, new research reveals that your eyes may also be an indicator of your personality type, simply by the way they move.

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Inhaled vaporized cannabis does not appear to improve or worsen exercise performance and activity-related breathlessness in patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a randomized controlled trial published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.